Sunday, December 19, 2010

Books in the Mail (2010-12-18)

Horus Rising (Audio) (Horus Heresy) by Dan Abnett and read by Martyn Eliis (Black Library, Abridged CD 1/4/2011) – Last week when I received the most recent Horus Heresy novel, I remarked that I haven’t read the first in the series. Well, here it is in CD-Audio format. 6 hours of what I hope is SF goodness. I’ll be listening to this one for sure, my first review of an audio book.

It is the 31st millennium. Under the benevolent leadership of the Immortal Emperor, the Imperium of Man hasstretched out across the galaxy. It is a golden age of discovery and conquest. But now, on the eve of victory, the Emperor leaves the front lines, entrusting the great crusade to his favourite son, Horus. Promoted to Warmaster, can the idealistic Horus carry out the Emperor’s grand plan, or will this promotion sow the seeds of heresy amongst his brothers? Horus Rising is the first chapter in the epic tale of the Horus Heresy, a galactic civil war that threatened to bring about the extinction of humanity.

God King (Book Three of The Sigmar Trilogy /Time of Legends) by Graham McNeill (The Black Library Mass Market Paperback January 2011) – I now have all three books in this trilogy which will bump it up the pile even more. McNeill won the David Gemmell Legend Award in 2010 for Empire, which further helps to bump it up the pile.

Sigmar, the first Emperor, is a god amongst men, a peerless leader and an unbreakable warrior. Having defeated the Chaos invasion of Middenheim, the Empire knows a measure of peace. But in the vast deserts of Nehekhara, another empire is rising. Nagash, the most feared of necromancers, is determined to claim dominance over the Old World, crushing all before him with an unstoppable and nightmarish army. Legions of unnatural creatures swarm the Empire. Sigmar must defend the lands of the living from the hordes of the dead and prevent Nagash's terrible vision of power coming true.

The Keep (Adversary Cycle #1) by F. Paul Wilson (Tor, Trade Paperback 12/07/2010) – F. Paul Wilson is a consistent, engaging writer who flies under the radar. Whether horror or dark/urban fantasy, his style is very smooth. This is the first novel in his Adversary Cycle and a modern classic of the horror genre.

“Something is murdering my men.”

Thus reads the message received from a Nazi commander stationed in a small castle high in the remote Transylvanian Alps. Invisible and silent, the enemy selects one victim per night, leaving the bloodless and mutilated corpses behind to terrify its future victims.

When an elite SS extermination squad is dispatched to solve the problem, the men find something that's both powerful and terrifying. Panicked, the Nazis bring in a local expert on folklore--who just happens to be Jewish--to shed some light on the mysterious happenings. And unbeknownst to anyone, there is another visitor on his way--a man who awoke from a nightmare and immediately set out to meet his destiny.

The battle has begun: On one side, the ultimate evil created by man, and on the other...the unthinkable, unstoppable, unknowing terror that man has inevitably awakened